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In chemistry, a pentose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with five carbon atoms. [1] The chemical formula of many pentoses is C 5 H 10 O 5, and their molecular weight is 150.13 g/mol. [2] Pentoses are very important in biochemistry. Ribose is a constituent of RNA, and the related molecule, deoxyribose, is a constituent of DNA.
Both types of pentoses in DNA and RNA are in their β-furanose (closed five-membered ring) form and they define the identity of a nucleic acid. DNA is defined by containing 2'-deoxy-ribose nucleic acid while RNA is defined by containing ribose nucleic acid. [1] In some occasions, DNA and RNA may contain some minor bases.
All living cells contain both DNA and RNA (except some cells such as mature red blood cells), while viruses contain either DNA or RNA, but usually not both. [15] The basic component of biological nucleic acids is the nucleotide, each of which contains a pentose sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nucleobase. [16]
One major difference between DNA and RNA is the sugar, with the 2-deoxyribose in DNA being replaced by the related pentose sugar ribose in RNA. [12] A section of DNA. The bases lie horizontally between the two spiraling strands [15] (animated version).
In a single strand of DNA or RNA, the chemical convention of naming carbon atoms in the nucleotide pentose-sugar-ring means that there will be a 5′ end (usually pronounced "five-prime end"), which frequently contains a phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of the ribose ring, and a 3′ end (usually pronounced "three-prime end"), which ...
While the sugar-phosphate "backbone" of DNA contains deoxyribose, RNA contains ribose instead. [6] Ribose has a hydroxyl group attached to the pentose ring in the 2' position, whereas deoxyribose does not. The hydroxyl groups in the ribose backbone make RNA more chemically labile than DNA by lowering the activation energy of hydrolysis.
Monosaccharides can be classified by the number x of carbon atoms they contain: triose (3), tetrose (4), pentose (5), hexose (6), heptose (7), and so on. Glucose, used as an energy source and for the synthesis of starch, glycogen and cellulose, is a hexose. Ribose and deoxyribose (in RNA and DNA, respectively) are pentose
Nucleic acid analogues are compounds which are analogous (structurally similar) to naturally occurring RNA and DNA, used in medicine and in molecular biology research. Nucleic acids are chains of nucleotides, which are composed of three parts: a phosphate backbone, a pentose sugar, either ribose or deoxyribose, and one of four nucleobases.